The Summer I Became a Nerd

#17

My journal sits on the console between us as we hit the bricks of Front Street. I’m having to pinch the tips of my fingers so I

don’t snatch it up and stuff it under my shirt. Plus, I’m still humming with nerves from that almost kiss in the closet. How

many of those have to happen before the actual thing actually happens?

“How does Mi Pueblo sound?” Logan’s voice jerks me out of my thoughts so hard I grab the door handle. Good thing it’s locked

or I’d be getting some face time with the Front Street bricks right now.

“Can I get some churros?” Vera asks from her booster seat in the back. There’s barely enough room for her back there. A

mountain of random books and boxes are piled precariously next to her.

“Sure, if Maddie wants to go there.”

“Sounds great. I’ve never been there before.”

Logan expertly parallel parks on Front Street across from the restaurant, which makes me envious. I’m the type of driver who will

drive around for thirty minutes just to find a spot I can pull into easily.

We each grab one of Vera’s hands before we all jog across the street and go through the glass door of the small Mexican

restaurant. Immediately, the smell of foreign spices and fried things hits me, and I’m suddenly starving. The place seems to be

designed to make the customer happy. The walls are the color of pancake batter, and the floors are covered in ceramic tile with a

Spanish flowery pattern.

Vera runs to the bathroom, and Logan and I sit across from each other at a table that gives us a wonderful view of the river.

“So, go on,” he says. “Spill it. What’s the deal with the notebook?”

I stare out at Cane River and hope he doesn’t think I’m crazy. Then again, that ship has probably already sailed. “It’s just

this kind of…journal.”

“Like your diary?” He sounds a little shocked. Bye-bye, crazy ship.

“Not really. It has to do with comics and—”

The waitress, a girl I’m pretty sure goes to our school, comes over with the menus just as Vera gets back from the bathroom.

“Can I get you guys some chips and salsa?”

Logan passes out the menus. “Please, Corina. Thanks.”

The girl leaves through the swinging doors behind the counter.

“You know her?” I ask as relaxed as possible.

“Yeah.” He says this like I should know her, too. He tilts his head to the side and eyes me. “She’s in our English class. And

she’s been the lead in the last two drama club productions.”

“Oh, right, I remember.” But I don’t really remember. I bury my head in my menu.

“Can I make a suggestion?”

“Okay. What do you recommend?”

Logan slips the menu out of my hand and lays it on top of his and Vera’s. “The monster. We could both eat off of this thing

until we’re full and still have leftovers.”

“Sounds great.”

Corina returns with some glasses of water and lemon wedges and the chips and salsa, then asks for our order.

“I’ll have the kid’s bean and cheese burrito and churros,” Vera says.

“And we’ll have the grande verde burrito.” Logan rolls his Rs when he says “burrito.” I love it.

“No problem.” Her eyes dart from me to Logan, a smile lighting up her face. I can see why she’s a drama club star. Her Latina-

bombshell factor is off the charts.

I take a sip of my water as she goes to turn in our order. “So, how well do you and Corina know each other?”

He shrugs. “I do the sound stuff for the plays, so we got to hang out a little.”

That’s innocent enough, right? I scold myself for getting even the slightest bit jealous. Here I am, waiting for the confirmation

of a breakup, and I’m concerned about this seemingly innocent girl. At that thought, I sneak a quick peek at my phone to make

sure I don’t have any missed calls or texts. Nothing.

Logan props his chin in his hand and gives me a far-too-innocent smile. “Why do you ask?”

I play with the stack of cardboard coasters sitting in the middle of the table. “Just curious.”

“Are you sure? Because I thought I detected a hint of jealousy.” I feel him tap my shoe with his. At first I think it’s an

accident, and then he does it again. And again. I can’t believe he’s playing footsie with me.

All I can do is glance up through my lashes and stick my tongue out at him. He just laughs and rests his ankle where it’s

touching mine.

I look around to distract myself and notice we’re the only customers. This calms me a little. As much as I love being around

Logan, I still wouldn’t know what to do if someone saw us here. Together. “At least we have the place to ourselves.”

“I guess it’s nice if you look at it that way.” He squeezes his lemon into his water, then stirs the drink with his straw.

“This place is amazing. It should be busier than this at this time of day. I’m sure most people are at the fast food places or

the chain restaurants for lunch, like always.”

I can hear a hint of animosity in his voice. “Not a fan of corporations, huh?”

“Damn the man,” Vera says out of the blue, and I almost choke on the sip of water I’ve just taken.

Logan frowns. “Veer, what have we said about that word?”

“Right, sorry. Darn the man.” She looks down because of the scold, then grins at me.

“Having a mom and pop comic book shop in a small town can make one bitter,” Logan says to me, running a hand through his hair

again. “I don’t know if it’s because we’re not originally from around here or if it’s because people just don’t care about

comics these days, but it’s like The Phoenix is doomed to be just another local business that had the potential to be great, but

just never got the customers.”

Well, that sucks. There must be some way to fix it, though. “Could it be because of advertising? Not to be rude or anything, but

I hardly ever see ads for you guys.”

“Could be that. But it’s hard to pay for billboards when you’re hardly paying the rent. Anyway, I shouldn’t have brought it

up. Let’s not get into it. Not today.” Logan looks at me wistfully.

Corina comes back with a big tray of food. Vera doesn’t waste any time picking up one of the fried churros and dipping it into

the cup of icing they came with. Our burrito is the last plate put on the table. Logan wasn’t lying—the thing is huge, the size

of one of my Dad’s work boots, and it smells delicious. The stuffed-to-its-limit burrito sits in a pool of green sauce, steaming.

Logan picks up his fork and knife like he’s about to dig into Thanksgiving dinner and begins to cut it into edible bites. I stab

a piece with my fork, and so does he. He raises his eyebrow as we both take a bite. Again, he was right. This is so mouth-

wateringly yummy I’d sell my pom-poms to pay for another taste.

We only finish half of “the monster” before we’re both stuffed, and Logan has to request a to-go box. Like most kids, Vera

finished like ten minutes ago.

“Are y’all done yet?” she asks for the hundredth time in the past five minutes.

“I think so,” Logan says.

She bounces in her seat. “Yay! Can we go to the—”

Logan puts a finger to his lips. “Right, right.” She nods her head. “It’s a surprise.”

…

We’ve left the bricks of Front Street behind and passed Logan’s house. Now I’m very curious about what he has planned because

there’s nothing out this way except for a place that sells mobile homes and an animal hospital. We pass both of those things and

keep going.

If she wasn’t strapped in, I’m sure Vera would be bouncing off the windows right now. “Are we there yet?” Classic kid

question.

Logan glances at her in his rearview mirror. “Almost.”

It isn’t until we turn into the gravel parking lot that I realize what Logan has in store for our first date.

“I love bowling!” I shout and begin bouncing just like Vera. “I haven’t been here in forever. Can we play air hockey? I rule

at air hockey, just so you know.”

Logan turns off the car. “We’ll see about that.” He leans over to open the glove compartment and tosses my comic journal in it.

I flinch. Just a little.

When we walk in, all those familiar noises hit me at once. The beeps and crashes of the arcade machines collide with the smash of

someone taking out at least seven pins. The scents of beer, nachos, and bowling ball wax meld into this one smell that, if it were

a perfume, would be called Eau de Gutterball.

We rent a lane from a lady with big, almost white-blond hair and electric blue eye shadow, whose name tag says Barbie, then head

over to the bowling balls. Vera is way more interested in trying to get her heart earrings from the claw machine so she darts over

to it.

“Stay where I can see you, Veer!” Logan yells after her.

After picking out the perfect bowling balls (mine is pink and swirly, his is shiny and black), we set up at our lane. I take off

my flip-flops and pause. No socks. Do they sell socks here? Is there a stocking vending machine somewhere?

I’m still staring at my pearly-pink painted toenails when Logan says, “I brought socks, just left them in the car. Could you, um

…” He trails off and looks over at Vera.

I smile up at him. “I’ll go see if I can help her get those earrings.”

He sighs out the word, “Thanks,” then says, “I’ll be right back.”

When I walk up behind her, Vera growls at the metal claw as it opens to drop absolutely nothing down the slot.

“Did you get ‘em yet?” I ask.

“No.” She mashes a quarter into the machine and presses the forward arrow button. “I only have two quarters left after this…

one…and…I almost have them!” The claw clamps down on the clear plastic egg that holds the earrings, but it’s not dead on so

the egg slips out of its grasp. “Awww, man, this thing is cheating.” Her forehead drops to the glass as she watches the claw

come back empty handed again.

“I have a trick for this. It’s better if you have a buddy watching from the side. I’ll stand over here and tell you when to

stop going forward, and then you move it left or right.”

I have to drape myself over the jukebox next to the claw game in order to get a good view from the side. We almost get it on the

next try, but the egg is just slightly out of line with the claw. It shoots over, putting itself in a prime spot for grabbing;

wedged in a stuffed panda’s arms, big end up.

“We can do this, Veer. It’s perfect. Just concentrate.” I plaster my face to the glass. Who cares about germs when giant

sparkly heart earrings are at stake?

She takes a deep breath and drops her last coin. The claw moves forward.

“Just a little more,” I say.

I catch my lip between my teeth as the claw lowers. It closes around the egg perfectly. We both gasp when the egg wobbles. It

rolls to the side, through a gap in the metal prongs, and falls out of the claw. I think we’ve lost it and try to come up with

something comforting to say to Vera, but then the egg bounces off the glass at an angle and careens down the winner shoot.

I jump up and down and squeal as Vera dives for the earrings, shouting, “Yes! Yes! Yes!” the whole time.

“Well, that was spectacular,” Logan says from behind us. “Give me a high five, Veer.” He holds his hand up high so she has to

hop up to slap it. He holds his hand up to me, and I place my own against it. He laces his fingers with mine. “You’re cute, you

know that?”

Later, when I’m lying in bed going over the day’s events, I’ll probably think of tons of different perfect responses to this,

but right now, all I can think of is, “Thanks.”

We go back to our lane. Vera takes a seat so she can spend some time with her new earrings, and Logan hands me a pair of socks.

They’re a pair of his soccer socks so when I put them on, the heels are almost sitting on the back of my calves, and they come up

to the middle of my knees.

He chuckles. “Sorry. I guess I could have gotten some of Mom’s.”

“Don’t worry, I like them. Could be another one of my new fashion trends. Two-toned bowling shoes and oversized socks are so

this season, don’t you think?” I pick up my ball and strike a pose.

He just continues laughing as he sets up the score board.

After a few frames, it’s clear neither of us is a pro, but who cares what the score is when you get to watch a cute nerd-boy

tiptoe up to the line only to almost fall every time he swings the ball? I even record the whole scene once with my phone without

him knowing so I can watch it anytime I want.

After about an hour of this, Vera says she’s thirsty, so Logan goes to the concession stand for some drinks.

While he’s gone, I check out the other bowlers. A family a few lanes over look like they’re having fun, laughing, and making

bets on who will get the next strike. A small group of college guys are playing pool in the enclosed arcade area. Another smiling

family steps up to Barbie to rent a lane.

That’s weird. The mother of the family looks just like Terra’s mom. And how odd is it that the daughter has curly hair just like

Terra… Oh crap. I dive down in my seat.

It can’t be. There is absolutely no possible way Terra and her family would walk into this bowling alley, on this day, at this

particular time. Is there?

I peek over my shoulder and end up staring at a cup of brown soda with a straw.

“Here you go.” Logan hands Vera and me our drinks.

I take a sip and try to find the Terra doppelganger again. The family is setting up five lanes over. The girl’s back is to me as

she switches her shoes.

“Maddie, you okay?” He sits next to me and nudges me with his elbow.

“Yeah, I’m… You know what, I’m getting a little worn out. I thought maybe we could go over some LARP of Ages stuff. Maybe at

The Phoenix?” I say, hopefully in a very I’m-not-trying-to-avoid-being-seen-with-you way.

I glance over my shoulder at the girl just as she whisks her hair into a clippy in a very familiar fashion. There’s no doubt in

my mind that’s Terra now. I’ve seen her do that move a million times. Not to mention I’ve actually borrowed that exact clippy a

million times at cheer practice.

I don’t know why I’m freaking out. Terra’s my best friend. My Soul-Sister. If anyone will accept the real me, it should be her,

right?

But then I realize it’s not the real me I’m worried about—it’s her seeing me here with Logan. I haven’t told her about any of

this, mostly because I’ve been too busy avoiding her calls so I don’t have to explain what I’ve been doing. Seeing me with

another guy she doesn’t know about might make her feel like we’re drifting apart. Or betrayed. What if she tells Peter about

seeing me with Logan? I really, really do not want Eric to find out about Logan and me from anyone but me. Yeah, Eric and I aren’

t together anymore, and yeah, it’s apparently no big deal to him, but finding out I dumped him for another guy? Worse, a nerd boy

of the highest order?

Breathing feels impossible. Oh, what a tangled web of suck I have weaved.

“Sure, we can do that, but I know what you’re trying to do here.” He stands and stares down at me. “Using me for my stockroom

full of comics, huh? Shame on you.”

Relieved that he, at least, doesn’t have a clue what’s going on, I focus on breathing normally and try to kick his shin, but he

easily dodges my foot.

“Just kidding, just kidding! No need for physical harm.” He winks at me.

I slip out of my shoes and shove my feet into my flip-flops, socks still on. “I’ll go pay for our games.” I snatch up his shoes

and head to the counter. He calls after me that he wants to pay, but I just keep going.

“Have a good time, hon?” Barbie asks.

I nod as I keep an eye on Terra. “A blast.”

Suddenly, she glances over her shoulder like she can feel me watching. We make eye contact for about a nano-second. I see her eyes

widen right before I duck down behind the counter. Crap!

“That’ll be fifteen fifty, hon,” Barbie says from above me. I stretch my arm up to hand her a twenty from my purse, but she’s

glancing around with a confused look on her face. I tap my hand on the counter to get her attention.

“There you are. I thought you disappeared on me.”

“Nope, I just lost a contact.” I peek around the corner of the counter and see Terra standing on her plastic ‘70s-orange chair,

trying to see over the counter. She must not have gotten a good look at me.

Logan comes around to the front of the counter. “Lose something?”

“Uh, yeah, my contact.” I tug on his pants leg, probably a little harder than necessary. “Can you help me look for it?”

He kneels down and angles his head, trying to catch the nonexistent contact’s reflection.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. I peek at the text.

Terra: Is that you?